The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Is it time to refer to the baseball elbow injury that results in Tommy John surgeries as an epidemic? There were roughly fifty Tommy John surgeries on professional baseball players in 2013. The number of professional baseball players opting for Tommy John surgery in 2014 is at forty-five. The impact of that number is felt when it is considered that Major League Baseball has not even reached the midpoint in the 2014 championship season.

"Tommy John surgery is on a record pace this year for elite level pitchers," said Dr. John Knight of The Hand and Wrist Institute. "This injury is very possibly a career ender at any level. The age for UCL injuries is dropping as pitchers are throwing too hard and too many pitches. The problem is the culture of increasing competition to get to the pro level requiring pitchers at an early age to throw with maximum effort."

UCL is short for ulnar collateral ligament, and injuries to that ligament are known to cause an early termination to a baseball player's career. The fact that Major League Baseball will soon have as many players suffering from such injuries and opting for Tommy John surgery before the 2014 All-Star break as the league had in the entirety of the 2013 championship season leaves many concerned about the stress being placed on baseball players.

MLB pitcher Dustin McGowan had Tommy John surgery after six starts in Double-A (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) is not scared to label the proliferation of Tommy John injuries as an epidemic. In a position statement released in May 2014, the ASMI implies that the epidemic is largely related to UCL problems in players that arose when they were adolescent amateurs.

"To have a chance of stemming the tide of Tommy John injuries, one has to start with kids first touching a baseball," added Dr. Knight. "Children as early as four years old are throwing a heavy baseball. They are throwing too much. They are throwing with maximum velocity as there has been an over emphasis on more is better. All of this leads to increase stress and torque across the growth plates and ligaments in a developing elbow, likely setting up the elbow for ultimate weakening of the soft tissues and inability to hold up over time. The prevention must start in the developing years with particular attention to pitch counts in innings and games, limiting the number of innings pitched and greater attention to proper biomechanics."

The ASMI provides a list of nine recommendations for professional pitchers to reduce the risk of having to undergo Tommy John injury. The recommendations include not always pitching with 100% effort and being wary of pitching in winter league baseball.

A Tommy John surgery epidemic is not only devastating from a medical-related position, but also can serve as a major setback for professional baseball organizations. Despite some who claim that going under the knife actually improves the performance of baseball players, it at least serves as a short-term setback for teams that need their best prospects to perform today. Further, the studies that claim Tommy John surgery improves performance over time may be heavily flawed.